Child Development 14-17

Adolescent Egocentrism

A characteristic of adolescent thinking that leads younger people (ages-10-13) to focus on themselves to the exclusion of others.

Rumination

To think obsessively about something, perhaps to the point that a past experience or current fantasy captures the mind, making action difficult.

Imaginary Audience

The other people who, in an adolescent's egocentric belief, are watching and taking note of his or her appearance, ideas, and behavior. This belief makes many teenagers very self-conscious.

Personal Fable

An aspect of adolescent egocentrism characterized by an adolescent’s belief that his or her thoughts, feelings, and experiences are unique, more wonderful, or awful than anyone else’s.

Invincibility fable

An adolescent egocentric conviction that he or she cannot be overcome or even harmed by anything that might defeat a normal mortal such as unprotected sex drug abuse or high speed driving!

Formal Operational Thought

In Piaget's theory, the fourth and final stage of cognitive development, characterized by more systematic logical thinking and by the ability to understand and systematically manipulate abstract concepts.

Hypothetical Thought

Reasoning that includes propositions and possibilities that may not reflect reality.

Intuitive Thought

Thought that arises from an emotion or a hunch, beyond rational explanation, and is influenced by past experiences and cultural assumptions.

Analytic Thought

Thought that results from analysis, such as a systematic ranking of pros and cons, risks and consequences, possibilities, and facts. Analytic thought depends on logic and rationality.

Stereotype Threat

The thought that someone else holds a stereotype about a person's appearance or behavior. That thought leads to stress, and stress affects the thinker's actions. Some studies show students do better when sexes are separated.

Growth Mindset

An approach to understanding intelligence that holds that intelligence grows incrementally and thus can be increased by effort. Those who subscribe to this view believe they can master whatever they seek to learn if they pay attention, participate in class, study, complete their homework, and so on.

Role Confusion

When adolescents have no clear identity but fluctuate from one persona to another.

Foreclosure

Erikson's term for premature identity formation, when adolescents adopt their parents' or society's roles and values, without questioning or analysis.

Moratorium

A socially acceptable way to postpone achieving identity. Going to college and joining the military are common examples.

Parental Monitoring

Parents' ongoing awareness of what their children are doing, where, and with whom.

Sexual Orientation

A person's romantic or sexual attraction, which can be to others of the same gender, another gender, or every gender.

Sexting

Sending sexual messages or photographs (usually of one's naked body) via phone or computer.

Cyberbullying

When people try to harm others via electronic means, such as social media and cell phone photos or texts.

Major Depression

Feelings of hopelessness, lethargy, and worthlessness that last two weeks or more.

Parasuicide

Any potentially deadly self-harm that does not result in death. (Also called attempted suicide or failed suicide.)

Cluster Suicides

Several suicides committed by members of a group within a brief period.

Adolescence-limited Offender

Is a person whose criminal activity stops by age 21.

Life-course Persistent Offender

Is a person whose criminal activity typically begins in early adolescence and continues throughout life, a career criminal.

Emerging Adulthood

The time between late adolescence and full adulthood, which, in the United States, is approximately age 18 to 30. This period is defined more by social context than by biological maturation.

Postformal Thought

Proposed adult stage of cognitive development, following Piaget's four stages, that goes beyond adolescent thinking by being more practical, more flexible, and dialectical.

WEIRD

An acronym that refers to people from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democracies, in other words, to North American college students, not necessarily the rest of humanity.

Intimacy versus Isolation

The sixth of Erikson’s eight stages of development. Adults seek someone with whom to share their lives in and enduring and self-sacrificing commitment. Without such commitment they risk profound alonenless and isolation.

Cohabitation

An arrangement in which a couple lives together in a committed romantic relationship but are not formally married.

Generativity versus Stagnation

The seventh of Erikson’s eight stages of development. Adults seek to be productive in a caring way, often as parents. Generativity also occurs through art, caregiving, and employment.

Puberty

The time between the first on rush of hormones and full adult physical development. Puberty usually lasts three to five years. Many more years are required to achieve psychosocial maturity.

Menarche

A girl’s first menstrual period, signaling that she has begun ovulation. Pregnancy is biologically possible, but ovulation and menstruation are often irregular for years after menarche.

Pituitary

A gland in the brain that responds to a signal from the hypothalamus by producing many hormones, including those that regulate growth and sexual maturation.

Estradiol

A sex hormone considered the chief estrogen. Females produce much more estradiol than males do.

Testosterone

A sex hormone, the best known of the androgens (male hormones); secreted in far greater amounts by males than by females.

Growth Spurt

The relatively sudden and rapid physical growth that occurs during puberty. Each body part increases in size on a schedule: Weight usually precedes height, and growth of the limbs precedes growth of the torso.

Body Image

A person’s idea of how his or her body looks.

Anoerexia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by distorted body image, severe calorie restriction, and intense fear of weight gain. Affected individual voluntarily under eat and or binge and purge their vital organs of nutrition. Anorexia can be fatal.

Bulimia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by binge eating and subsequent purging, usually by induced vomiting and/or use of laxatives.

Primary Sex Characteristics

The parts of the body that are directly involved in reproduction, including the vagina, uterus, ovaries, testicles, and penis.

Sexually Transmitted Infection (STD)

A disease spread by sexual contact, including syphilis, gonorrhea, genital herpes, chlamydia, and HIV.